FAQ EU CITES permit operations for international companies.​

CITES is the international framework that regulates trade in protected animal and plant species. If your goods contain, derive from or involve listed species, you may need permits or certificates before you import, export or re-export them across borders. In the EU, those rules are implemented through a strict wildlife trade regime that applies across Member States.​

For businesses, that means CITES is not a niche issue only for zoos, exotic animals or rare plants. It can affect leather goods, timber, musical instruments, decorative items, luxury products, biological materials and other commercial flows. If the paperwork is wrong or incomplete, authorities may delay, refuse or seize shipments.​

You generally need an EU CITES permit or certificate when a CITES-listed specimen or derived product crosses an external EU border. That can apply to imports, exports, re-exports and certain other movements, depending on the species, route and legal status of the goods.​

The difficulty is that companies often underestimate how quickly a product category becomes a permit issue once a listed species or material is involved. That is why the first step is usually not “file something quickly,” but “map the product, route and regulatory status properly.”

Claeritas helps international companies structure and manage the Dutch-side permit process. We identify whether CITES is likely to apply, determine the relevant route, prepare and support the filing path, coordinate follow-up and keep the process readable for the client team.

In practical terms, that means turning a messy situation into a managed one. Instead of leaving internal teams to chase status, decode annexes and handle authority correspondence in parallel, we create a clearer operating route and a more reliable handling rhythm.

No. No private company can guarantee permit approval, because decisions remain with the competent authorities. What Claeritas can do is improve the quality, structure and completeness of the process so the case is submitted in a far more credible and workable way.

That distinction matters. We do not sell certainty we do not control. We sell stronger preparation, clearer handling and fewer avoidable errors in a process where quality and coherence matter.

No. Claeritas is an independent private company. We are not part of RVO, the European Commission or any national authority, and we do not issue permits ourselves.

Our role is to help companies prepare, manage and navigate their route through the formal permit system. We stay independent, practical and clear about what we do and do not control.

We start with a short written intake. You describe the products, routes, frequency and main point of friction, and we assess the clearest next step. Depending on the case, that may become a paid assessment, a single permit filing or an ongoing managed setup.